I chose to do my project about Aliza. Aliza was a Bat Sherut in my community. She was a Director in the Bnei Akiva chapter in Nokdim, and she also worked in the kindergartens. Aliza helped a lot by developing the snif and did a lot of things in the kindergartens. All the people in my community loved her. I would like to learn in this project why she chose to come be a Bnei Akiva Director in my community. What were her plans in the beginning? Did she accomplished her goals, and what does she plan to do in the future?
Aliza lives in Rechovot. She learns in a seminary for Torah studies in the Shomron. In the last two years, she did national service in our community of Nokdim, in Eastern Gush Etzion.
Aliza was born in Boston, United States. She has two brothers and parents that worked in something connected to biology and computers. Aliza learned in Maimonedes, an orthodox Jewish school.
Even before Aliza's parents met, they dreamed of coming and living in Israel. But technically, they came to Israel only when Aliza was nine. When Aliza's family came to Israel, they went to live in Rechovot. In the beginning, they rented an apartment and later bought a house which they still live in.
She learned in the "Techkemony" school. Until seventh grade she wasn't part of any youth group but then she joined the orthodox scouts and was part of that group until she finished school. Then she decided to move to the Bnei Akiva youth group because she understood and agrees more with the Bnei Akiva morals. Aliza decided that for her national service she wants to be a youth group coordinator of Bnei Akiva. She tried to get in to two different places and didn't manage both but then the Bnei Akiva management said that if she was once in the Scouts and she has a backgrounds with different kinds of people then it’s a good idea to send her to a place that has a big variety of people.
And that’s how she got to Nokdim which is a religiously mixed community.
The first time Aliza came to Nokdim was a rainy Tuesday. She did an activity for some of the teens of the community, she had some meetings with people of the community and after a few days she stayed for Shabbat to really get to know the community.
When Aliza came to Nokdim she set herself a few goals and as she says she managed to accomplish all of them.
Before Aliza came to Nokdim Bnei Akiva, you could say it was not even worthy to be called a youth group for it barley existed. She managed to get the youth group running. A lot of children started to come, there was a newspaper, trips…She raised it many levels from where it was before and brought with her hard work a lot of excitement from the community.
Besides being the youth group coordinator she also helped in the kindergartens. Something that was really needed and all the children there really liked her. She also used to help me and few other children with homework to let give their mothers time to do their own work and not to w
orry about us.
She was in Nokdim two years. In those to years she helped a lot to develop the community and when she was planning to leave, everyone begged her to stay.
Before she went, a big goodbye party was thrown for her- that was the least we could to and give her for all her hard work and effort.
Today Aliza is learning in a Midrasha and when I asked her for her plans in the future she answered that she wants to work as an educator and explained that she thinks that a lot of the problems in our days is because there's a bad education and that the world needs new educators to fix that.
Aliza's Motto for life is "If you believe that you can destroy believe that you can always fix what you destroyed." Another thing that follows Aliza in her life is balance. Its very important to know how to balance things in life and to put things in proportions.
Background Research-Nokdim
Nokdim is mixed settlemet in the Eastern Gush Etzion. There are about 180 families living there. It was established by residents of Tekoa 28 years ago, in 1982, in memory of two people from Tekoa who were killed in the same week. In the beginning the founding six families lived in tents at the bottom of Herodion for about six months. Then, they moved to live in caravans on the present location of Kfar Eldad. After 11 years, the growing community got building permits to start building where Nokdim is today. Originally, the name of the Yishuv was El David in memory of David Rosenfeld and Eli Pressman. To learn more about these people, click here http://www.nokdim.org.il/background.asp When they started building, the national committee in charge of naming new towns, said they do not want a town called in memory of a person, so they chose Nokdim from The book of Amos. The first verse says that Amos was from the Nokdim ( shepherds) that come from Tekoa.
Nokdim is a very quiet place, even every day. Its built at the edge of the Judean Desert. If you stand on one side of the settlement, you look to the mountains and deep dry river gorges. You can also see Tekoa across a deep gorge. If you stand on the Northeastern edge, you can see the open desert, Kfar Eldad, Ma'ale Rechavam ( tiny new settlement) and Herodian, the historical location of Herod's summer palace. On clear days, you can see the hills of Jordan, across the Dead Sea. The sunsets, adds my teacher, are incredible. The shade of red and orange never end. Nokdim is a mixed settlement in many ways. If you walk in the streets you can meet many kinds of people --religious and non-religious, People from all around the world, people who work in many types of jobs, and they all live together in one community. Nokdim has many facilities for their residents. For example, they have day-care and school for children, ages 0-5. There is a library, a small grocery store, a synagogue, and mail service. Nokdim has Bnei Akiva, a national-zionistic youth group for school age children. Usually, Bnei Akiva is only for religious children, but in Nokdim, there are religious and non-religious participants.
Nokdim has plans to build 2000 houses, but in the meantime for many reasons, the building is not going very quickly. Today there are about 100 houses of one or two stories, and the rest live in caravans or in rental apartments in other people's homes. Once, there were not many people who wanted to come to Nokdim, but once a direct road to Jerusalem opened, many more wanted to live there. Now, the problem is that we don’t have official building permission. The current building freeze doesn’t really help us either.
אני מאמין באמונה שלמה
בביאת המשיח בארץ ישראל של אהבה
בכל יום שיגיע הנה הנה זה בא
אהבת ישראל בנשמהאהבת ישראלLink to Hear The Song
The song speaks about the longing of the Jews for Israel during the redemption. It talks about the passion that the people have for their land. The song starts by telling us that we, as a people, have been waiting for 2000 years to receive OUR land. We've been lost in the world all this time. And all we want is our homeland. The song also speaks about the love within the nation.
In the first paragraph the song describes how every day our hearts are broken, over and over….the same pain, the same suffering, and all for what? Some land? This to me really describes our people. We come from our land: it is who we are, and we will not give it up. Every Jew has that hope, that today - maybe today - our land…Israel…will be fully ours. Through the generations that longing goes on.
In the second paragraph the writer describes the belief in the redemption of our nation in Israel "the land of love".
What I understand from this song is that when all the Jewish people live in Israel in peace, and love each other, then and only than will the redemption come.
Israel for me is the place that connects all the parts of the Jewish nation together, because it's something we all have in common. We all want Israel. We all love Israel. It unites us.
Creative Connection
For my creative connection I chose to make a mosaic because I think that also our country is like a mosaic. We are all very different from each other in how we look, in the places we came from, in our cultures and our beliefs. Although we are so different, we manage to live together and built a united community that cares for everyone. for my mosaic I chose to use the symbol of the state, the menorah and the 2 olive branches. The menorah symbolizes the tradition and beliefs of the Jewish nation and the olive branches symbolize our mission to spread the light of the Torah to the whole world.
Rationale
I chose to do my project about Aliza. Aliza was a Bat Sherut in my community. She was a Director in the Bnei Akiva chapter in Nokdim, and she also worked in the kindergartens. Aliza helped a lot by developing the snif and did a lot of things in the kindergartens. All the people in my community loved her. I would like to learn in this project why she chose to come be a Bnei Akiva Director in my community. What were her plans in the beginning? Did she accomplished her goals, and what does she plan to do in the future?Aliza's ProfileRationale
Aliza's Profile toc
Background Research-Nokdim
Literary Connection
Creative Connection
Reflection
Bibliography
Table of Contents
Aliza was born in Boston, United States. She has two brothers and parents that worked in something connected to biology and computers. Aliza learned in Maimonedes, an orthodox Jewish school.
Even before Aliza's parents met, they dreamed of coming and living in Israel. But technically, they came to Israel only when Aliza was nine. When Aliza's family came to Israel, they went to live in Rechovot. In the beginning, they rented an apartment and later bought a house which they still live in.
She learned in the "Techkemony" school. Until seventh grade she wasn't part of any youth group but then she joined the orthodox scouts and was part of that group until she finished school. Then she decided to move to the Bnei Akiva youth group because she understood and agrees more with the Bnei Akiva morals. Aliza decided that for her national service she wants to be a youth group coordinator of Bnei Akiva. She tried to get in to two different places and didn't manage both but then the Bnei Akiva management said that if she was once in the Scouts and she has a backgrounds with different kinds of people then it’s a good idea to send her to a place that has a big variety of people.
And that’s how she got to Nokdim which is a religiously mixed community.
The first time Aliza came to Nokdim was a rainy Tuesday. She did an activity for some of the teens of the community, she had some meetings with people of the community and after a few days she stayed for Shabbat to really get to know the community.
When Aliza came to Nokdim she set herself a few goals and as she says she managed to accomplish all of them.
Before Aliza came to Nokdim Bnei Akiva, you could say it was not even worthy to be called a youth group for it barley existed. She managed to get the youth group running. A lot of children started to come, there was a newspaper, trips…She raised it many levels from where it was before and brought with her hard work a lot of excitement from the community.
Besides being the youth group coordinator she also helped in the kindergartens. Something that was really needed and all the children there really liked her. She also used to help me and few other children with homework to let give their mothers time to do their own work and not to w
orry about us.She was in Nokdim two years. In those to years she helped a lot to develop the community and when she was planning to leave, everyone begged her to stay.
Before she went, a big goodbye party was thrown for her- that was the least we could to and give her for all her hard work and effort.
Today Aliza is learning in a Midrasha and when I asked her for her plans in the future she answered that she wants to work as an educator and explained that she thinks that a lot of the problems in our days is because there's a bad education and that the world needs new educators to fix that.
Aliza's Motto for life is "If you believe that you can destroy believe that you can always fix what you destroyed." Another thing that follows Aliza in her life is balance. Its very important to know how to balance things in life and to put things in proportions.
Background Research-Nokdim
Nokdim is mixed settlemet in the Eastern Gush Etzion. There are about 180 families living there. It was established by residents of Tekoa 28 years ago, in 1982, in memory of two people from Tekoa who were killed in the same week. In the beginning the founding six families lived in tents at the bottom of Herodion for about six months. Then, they moved to live in caravans on the present location of Kfar Eldad. After 11 years, the growing community got building permits to start building where Nokdim is today. Originally, the name of the Yishuv was El David in memory of David Rosenfeld and Eli Pressman. To learn more about these people, click here http://www.nokdim.org.il/background.asp When they started building, the national committee in charge of naming new towns, said they do not want a town called in memory of a person, so they chose Nokdim from The book of Amos. The first verse says that Amos was from the Nokdim ( shepherds) that come from Tekoa.Nokdim is a very quiet place, even every day. Its built at the edge of the Judean Desert. If you stand on one side of the settlement, you look to the mountains and deep dry river gorges. You can also see Tekoa across a deep gorge. If you stand on the Northeastern edge, you can see the open desert, Kfar Eldad, Ma'ale Rechavam ( tiny new settlement) and Herodian, the historical location of Herod's summer palace. On clear days, you can see the hills of Jordan, across the Dead Sea. The sunsets, adds my teacher, are incredible. The shade of red and orange never end.
Nokdim is a mixed settlement in many ways. If you walk in the streets you can meet many kinds of people --religious and non-religious, People from all around the world, people who work in many types of jobs, and they all live together in one community. Nokdim has many facilities for their residents. For example, they have day-care and school for children, ages 0-5. There is a library, a small grocery store, a synagogue, and mail service. Nokdim has Bnei Akiva, a national-zionistic youth group for school age children. Usually, Bnei Akiva is only for religious children, but in Nokdim, there are religious and non-religious participants.
Nokdim has plans to build 2000 houses, but in the meantime for many reasons, the building is not going very quickly. Today there are about 100 houses of one or two stories, and the rest live in caravans or in rental apartments in other people's homes. Once, there were not many people who wanted to come to Nokdim, but once a direct road to Jerusalem opened, many more wanted to live there. Now, the problem is that we don’t have official building permission. The current building freeze doesn’t really help us either.
To see photos of Nokdim and the surrounding area, click here.
http://www.nokdim.org.il/photoalbum.asp
Literary Connection
אלפיים שנה אני נודד,מחפש את הארץ אותה אני אוהב
כל יום מחדש הלב נשבר
כל יום מחדש אולי מחר
מתי הגאולה?
אני מאמין באמונה שלמה
בביאת המשיח בארץ ישראל של אהבה
בכל יום שיגיע הנה הנה זה בא
אהבת ישראל בנשמה
כל בוקר ציון אלייך אני מתפלל
"לא יינום לא יישן שומר ישראל"
כל יום מחדש אני אוהב
כל יום מחדש עם כל הלב
שלום על ישראל
אני מאמין באמונה שלמה
בביאת המשיח בארץ ישראל של אהבה
בכל יום שיגיע הנה הנה זה בא
אהבת ישראל בנשמה 3X
בנשמה, בנשמה, בנשמה, בנשמה
בנשמה, בשנמה, בנשמה, בנשמה
שנשמה,שבנה,ענהמ,המנ
בנשמה, בנשמה, בנשמה, בנשמה
בנשמה, בנשמה, בנשמה, בנשמה.
אני מאמין באמונה שלמה
בביאת המשיח בארץ ישראל של אהבה
בכל יום שיגיע הנה הנה זה בא
אהבת ישראל בנשמהאהבת ישראלLink to Hear The Song
The song speaks about the longing of the Jews for Israel during the redemption. It talks about the passion that the people have for their land. The song starts by telling us that we, as a people, have been waiting for 2000 years to receive OUR land.
We've been lost in the world all this time. And all we want is our homeland. The song also speaks about the love within the nation.
In the first paragraph the song describes how every day our hearts are broken, over and over….the same pain, the same suffering, and all for what? Some land? This to me really describes our people. We come from our land: it is who we are, and we will not give it up. Every Jew has that hope, that today - maybe today - our land…Israel…will be fully ours. Through the generations that longing goes on.
In the second paragraph the writer describes the belief in the redemption of our nation in Israel "the land of love".
What I understand from this song is that when all the Jewish people live in Israel in peace, and love each other, then and only than will the redemption come.
Israel for me is the place that connects all the parts of the Jewish nation together, because it's something we all have in common. We all want Israel. We all love Israel. It unites us.
Creative Connection
For my creative connection I chose to make a mosaic because I think that also our country is like a mosaic. We are all very different from each other in how we look, in the places we came from, in our cultures and our beliefs. Although we are so different, we manage to live together and built a united community that cares for everyone. for my mosaic I chose to use the symbol of the state, the menorah and the 2 olive branches. The menorah symbolizes the tradition and beliefs of the Jewish nation and the olive branches symbolize our mission to spread the light of the Torah to the whole world.
Reflection
Bibliography